1 Thessalonians

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

²We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, ³remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. ⁴We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen, ⁵and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake. ⁶You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, ⁷so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out; so that we need not to say anything. ⁹For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, ¹⁰and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

For you yourselves know, brothers, our visit to you wasn’t in vain, ²but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you know, at Philippi, we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God in much conflict. ³For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in deception. ⁴But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts. ⁵For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness), ⁶nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ. ⁷But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

⁸Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us. ⁹For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God. ¹⁰You are witnesses with God, how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe. ¹¹As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children, ¹²to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory. ¹³For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe. ¹⁴For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews; ¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and didn’t please God, and are contrary to all men; ¹⁶forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.

¹⁷But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire, ¹⁸because we wanted to come to you—indeed, I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us. ¹⁹For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming? ²⁰For you are our glory and our joy.

Therefore when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone, ²and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the Good News of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith; ³that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task. ⁴For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know. ⁵For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain. ⁶But when Timothy came just now to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you; ⁷for this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith. ⁸For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. ⁹For what thanksgiving can we render again to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God; ¹⁰night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith? ¹¹Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you; ¹²and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you, ¹³to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more. ²For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. ³For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, ⁴that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, ⁵not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God; ⁶that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. ⁷For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. ⁸Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.

⁹But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, ¹⁰for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more; ¹¹and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you; ¹²that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.

¹³But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. ¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. ¹⁵For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, ¹⁷then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸Therefore comfort one another with these words.

But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. ²For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. ³For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape. ⁴But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. ⁵You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness, ⁶so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night. ⁸But let us, since we belong to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation. ⁹For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. ¹¹Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do. ¹²But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, ¹³and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake.

Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴We exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient toward all. ¹⁵See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone, but always follow after that which is good, for one another, and for all.

¹⁶Rejoice always. ¹⁷Pray without ceasing. ¹⁸In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you. ¹⁹Don’t quench the Spirit. ²⁰Don’t despise prophesies. ²¹Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good. ²²Abstain from every form of evil.

²³May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁴He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it. ²⁵Brothers, pray for us. ²⁶Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. ²⁷I solemnly command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers.

²⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.